personal finance for millennial women

Monthly budget results – Feb and Mar 2018

HELLO MONEYBABES!!

Firstly let me apologise a million times for being away for so long – I had no intention of being away for this amount of time, but I got put on a project that sent me to Abu Dhabi for 6 weeks and in that time I had a super ~traumatic~ experience that threw me WAYYYY off and of course I will post about it in excruciating detail very soon (stay tuned!).

BUT – before I do that I want to bring everyone up to date on my finances. I’m not doing bad but definitely not doing great. Being away and expensing most things to my company (within policy people – I’m not tryna get firedddd) has led to some very confusing budget up-keep. However it’s been relatively simple to keep up with my net worth so I’m posting that!!

FEBRUARY 2018

So not suuuper great movement in Feb but not terrible…basically just scraping by on my minimum goals.

MARCH 2018

Better in march but this mostly has to do with the fact I have so little expenses since I have no travel/grocery…but I did some shopping in anticipation of my trip in June because I was recovering from my dramatic experience and missing home and I really don’t have an excuse JUST let me live my life (I’m kidding please hold me accountable I have fallen off the wagon).

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 GOAL RESULTS:

No spend Q1 (Jan18-Mar18) – hahahahahahahahahahah

Tidiness – I’ve been living in a hotel since beginning of March so it’s been a disaster

Read 20 min a day – NOPE lol

Work out 4x per week! – YES! Living several floors above your gym helps a lot. Crappy equipment but I’ve done my absolute best and had to get creative so it’s actually been fun!

Stick to calorie goals – February went really well but travelling basically means I need to order a salad most places to be safe and that gets old quick. I’ve done my absolute best I could so far.

Don’t quit my job – I’m basically clinging on to the fact I only have 1.5 years until I qualify for the ACA and I can move on with my life. I am just not made for insane hours. The end.

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS

So…that’s probably a dramatic heading for this section. I’ve had the opportunity to spend 6 weeks in the Middle East without spending a dime. I’ve been to the UAE and Oman and it has been the most amazing experience and given me a chance to spend time in the sunshine which I was in desperate need of. but……………..

Being in constant close quarters with my colleagues has taught me a lot about myself and brings me back to my 2018 goal of saying what I mean and sticking with it. I am the type of person who loves to socialise, but also needs a large dose of alone time very regularly. In this situation that’s been very stressful to achieve as some of the people I’m with don’t seem to ever crave alone time.

It’s given me so much anxiety and stress to deal with every evening because instead of heading back to our separate hotel rooms, they want to spend the entire evening drinking and eating at a restaurant for the 4th night in a row. I want to go to sleep early, eat healthy, not drink, and watch Netflix alone so that I can wake up refreshed and work out. I’ve been clear about that, but it doesn’t seem to really click with anyone.

I guess the whole reason I’m sharing this is I want to tell anyone who ever has to deal with this is:

YOU DON’T OWE ANYONE AN EXPLANATION FOR NOT WANTING TO DO STUFF.

If you can’t (or just simply do not want to) do something with people for ANY reason you have every right to only say “no thank you” and be done with it. It’s not for you to stretch yourself too thin in order to placate people around you. You do you. The end.

Anyways I hope everyone out there is having a fantastic week and just know, if you’ve gone crazy on Zaful and ordered 800 swimsuits that you don’t need (like I just did two weeks ago), it’s never too late for a fresh start !!!

2 thoughts on “Monthly budget results – Feb and Mar 2018”

Aaah I’m so happy to see you back, I hope you’re OK and as you say: you do you. If you need to focus on your mental health/wellbeing/job/whatever right now, don’t also push yourself to make huge leaps in your finances!

I gotta say, spending 6 weeks in a hotel with my colleagues sounds a bit like torture….

Thanks!! It’s so easy to feel like you’re being dramatic with mental health stuff but it got to a point where I wasn’t being myself because I was so miserable! You’re so right about not killing myself to make a leap in finances, I feel so behind on where I was planning to be…but I think just getting back on track is the most important part rather than making a splash!!